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Tornado outbreak of January 13-14, 2018
the 'Tornado outbreak of January 13-14, 2018 '''was a tornado outbreak that affected portions of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, and Louisiana with a tornado also touching down from a isolated supercell in southern Indiana. The Hunt, Texas tornado was a EF1 tornado but killed 3 people when it flipped a mobile home near the town of Hunt. Tornadoes Meteorological history ''See: List of tornadoes in the Tornado outbreak of January 13-14, 2018 In late December 2017, a strong frontal system emerged over Alaska, this frontal system would very slowly move eastward and by January 10 was located over the Dakotas and Nebraska, after that the system became Winter Storm Xena. On the southern bands of Xena were warmer air causing strong thunderstorm development, on January 12 the SPC issued a D2 Slight Risk over northern Oklahoma taking this into consideration. The main hazard was large hail but tornadoes were not ruled out (but there was only a 2% chance). The storms emerged early on January 13 and a tornado touched down in a cornfield in Oklahoma. 'January 13 event -' Early on January 13 the SPC issued a Enhanced Risk for central Oklahoma with a 5% chance of tornadoes outlined, particularly in the Oklahoma City area. At 1:07PM a tornado reportedly touched down near Moore before lifting, it would be around 2PM when Tornado Watch #1 would be issued for central Oklahoma and northern Texas with a 40% chance of tornadoes (Moderate) and a 20% chance (Low) of two or more strong (F2-F5) tornadoes. Another tornado would touch down near Oklahoma City and track through the city, tearing off the tiles of some houses roofs and destroying a billboard. a few houses received significant roof damage leading to a high-end EF0 rating. Afterwards a second tornado, this time a EF2, would touch down near Norman and track east through the city, heavily damaging homes and businesses in it's path. 5 would be seriously injured when the Norman tornado threw them out of their Jeep and heavily damaged the Jeep. Another spinup would be reported near the Oklahoma-Texas state line. Overnight a small cluster of tornadic storms would track through south central Texas. The strongest of the tornadoes was the Hunt, Texas EF1...which was also the only fatal tornado of the outbreak, killing 3 people. 'January 14 event -' As the morning continued on more storms popped up throughout southern Texas leading to a ENH risk being introduced in the 1630Z outlook. Storms initiated in northern Mexico near the US-Mexican border and tracked across it leading to a EF3 tornado hitting a border checkpoint, injuring 6 people. Another tornado would happen near San Antonio that would also become a EF3 leading to Tornado Watch #4 being issued for southern Texas. A severe thunderstorm would cause a tornado family across southern Texas with 3 EF0's and 1 EF2, reports of a large cone tornado were received near Houston at 3:32PM leading to a tornado emergency for the city, however the tornado hit as a EF2, causing moderate damage to some homes and some weaker structures (most of them weakened by Harvey) were totally decimated, after a few more tornadoes...by 2100Z the storms had mostly tracked off the coast of Texas. 'Aftermath -' Texan governor Greg Abbott declared the southern counties of Texas under a state of emergency due to the heavy amounts of damage caused by the outbreak, particularly with the Hunt tornado and Houston tornado. 'Notable tornadoes -' Norman, Oklahoma On the 13th, a strong tornado would develop near the city of Norman. It would make a direct impact with the city and heavily damage some homes and businesses and cause 5 injuries. The tornado would lift about 4 miles east of the city at 5:51PM. Hunt, Texas See article here: 2018 Hunt, Texas tornado As a cluster of strong tornadic thunderstorms moved through south central Texas, a funnel cloud was reported near the unincorporated town of Hunt, Texas...a tornado quickly touched down with no advance warning and flipped a mobile home, killing all 3 occupants...the storm tracked directly through the community injuring a person killing a cat after a tree fell on them. As the storm moved out of Hunt it stalled as a high-end EF1 tornado, at 11:40PM the tornado moved out of the Hunt area, and by 11:50PM it had weakened to a EF0. It lifted at 11:54PM right as it crossed the county line. The Kerr County Emergency Management declared a state of emergency after the Hunt tornado due to about $8,000 in damages. Mexican-US border checkpoint #37 A strong severe thunderstorm just south of the Mexican-US border rapidly spun up a tornado as it prepared to cross into the US, with no advance warning, at 10:59AM...a very quick moving EF3 tornado hit a border checkpoint, injuring 6 people, most of them were injured when their cars were either thrown. The tornado lifted about 200 seconds later after destroying the checkpoint completely and destroying about 300 trees. San Antonio, Texas As the same storm that produced the border checkpoint tornado moved towards the western side of San Antonio, it developed weak rotation. It made a very sudden turn just southwest of San Antonio and a tornado developed and moved south of San Antonio. At 2:55PM, the tornado reportedly grew in size from a small rope into a stovepipe tornado, after downing many trees and destroying 10 homes, the tornado lifted at 3:12PM. Houston, Texas See article here: 2018 Houston tornado A funnel cloud was reported about 30 miles northwest of Houston, Texas at 3:48PM...and at 3:51PM a tornado touched down with no spotters in the area. The tornado rapidly grew into a EF2 tornado and reached a brief size of just over a mile wide before any spotters reported it, the city was put under a tornado emergency at 4:03PM after a spotter reported a 0.8 mile wide tornado approaching the city very rapidly, it is believed the storm may have reached EF5 status at it's max width, however no radar or photographic proof that it was possible exists. The tornado slammed the city as a half of a mile wide monster. Entire homes were decimated, however most of them had already been heavily damaged by Hurricane Harvey a few months prior.